SB Nation User Blog: zenbitz

Immortal Indignity

zenbitz — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:11:38 -0000

At the beginning of the season I wondered if the Giants could manage to put together one of the worst offensive infields of all time. This you can measure with a stat call sOPS+ - which measures how well your IF hits relative to the leagues' infields (100 would be average). The 1985 Giants and 2007 Giants racked up bad, but not historically score sOPS+ of 80 and 81. The record is the 1995 Cards with an astronomically awful 66.

After a hot May and Durham resurgence, this Giants squad looked to be run of the mill bad... but with Vizquel entrenched at the sub-neifi line, and a cold summer for 1B... The Giants infield sOPS+ now stands at 77!

Now this data only runs back to 1958, but hey, that's a good starting point:

1995 STL 66
1982 OAK 71
2003 DET 71
1999 ANA 74
1977 OAK 75
2002 DET 75 (two years in a row this low)
1972 TEX 76
1979 SDP 76
1981 TOR 76
1989 ATL 76
2004 SEA 76
1965 HOU 77
1983 SEA 77
1983 NYM 77
1994 CAL 77
2000 TBD 77
2003 CLE 77

So the 2008 Giants are in a tie for 12th (or alternatively, have the 6th worst sOPS+). I I doubt they can crack 70, but some weak hacking and bizzare callups could drop them down past the 1999 Angels!

How bad have the Giants SS been?

.214/.283/.260  

Johnnie Lemaster, Career: .222/.277/.289
Neifi Perez, WORST season (OPS+ of 44!)  .236/.260/.303

Defensive Perception

zenbitz — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:59:45 -0000

Have you ever noticed how the worse a teams' offense, the better perceived it's defense (including pitching)? I have noticed this for the last couple years with the Giants and 49ers. In the 49ers case, the defense hasn't even been average, merely not "historically awful". I have heard excuses (which don't apply to baseball) that "it's because the defense is on the field so much" - but that doesn't stop many teams from having good defenses and terrible offenses.

Some numbers: by Football Outsiders DVOA, the niners ranked 32nd in offense, and 28th in defense. That's bad. By comparison, the number 1 ranked defense (Tennessee) had the 21st ranked offense, and the Ravens coupled the 9th best defense with the 26th best offense.

I see a similar thing going on with the Giants in the view of their pitching. The Giants pitching/defense is not good. It's merely average. Now compared to their utter ineptitude on offense, it seems like a bright spot - but getting past Lincecum and Cain there is some talent but not much in the way of results (although Brian Wilson has been quite good in high leverage situations).

Fan Post Registration Fan Post

zenbitz — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:38:51 -0000

So, it has been mentioned, many, many times that there are too many fan posts, and particularly too many on the same subjects. So, I would propose to use this Fan Post thread as an area where future fan posts topics can be vetted and approved by the community - so that we don't have to waste our precious time reading redundant fan posts - or even worse - berating those who "accidentally" post another fan post when a perfectly adequate one already exists.

I really think that having a forum where we can suggest and debate the validity of topics proposed before they actually appear as topics will substantially improve the signal-to-noise ratio of McCovey Chronicles.

Thanks for your time and consideration,

A concerned MCC net.denizen

Great Googly Moogly!

zenbitz — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:49:06 -0000

Zito DEMOTED to bullpen! That is really truly shocking.

Also, I cannot believe I am the first one to post it. Also, I can't beleive these stupid things hav to be 75 chars. If I wrote it in UNICODE could I do it in 25?

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-giants-zito&prov=ap&type=lgns

Alright all y'all Bochy haters! What NOW? HUH!?! WHO'S THE MAN (with the large head).

Old Dogs and New Tricks

zenbitz — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 21:53:19 -0000

Anyone still think Sabean has "turned the corner" as a GM?

I posted this on BTF... and I thought it was good enough to repeat here:

Sabean is the GM equivalent of Scottish food. It's like all his moves are based on a dare.

At least it's not Juan Pierre!

Why you keep Lincecanium

zenbitz — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 18:16:11 -0000

OK, I decided there weren't enough Diaries on this issue, so I made my own.

It makes no sense for the Giants to trade either Lincecum or Cain (barring some ridiculous deal).

a) any such deal is highly unlikely to turn SF into a 2008 or even 2009 contender

b) Their trade value will likely RISE in 2008 if they put up solid numbers in MLB (even on a poor team)

1 millionth rebuilding thread

zenbitz — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 17:17:24 -0000

So, there have been 999,999 threads on Mcc about retooling the Giants for 2009 and beyond.

I just want to point out that the probability of your rebuilding success is not dependent on the amount of punishment you deal to your fans in terms of fielding pathetic losing teams.

Correlation is not Causation!

The Giants management job is, I think we all agree, to maximize the chances of pennants for 2008 and the future. Note I switched from the 2009 everyone is assuming to the 2008.

"Playing kids" because they might miracle their way above mediocrity does not help.

There's no Punting in baseball.

Poll: Which will end up being more criminal?

zenbitz — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 00:32:36 -0000

When it's all said and done - which will end up being a more criminal waste of baseball talent by Giants management?

Barry Bonds, 14 years, 1 WS loss
Cain/Lincecum, X years, no offense?

Poll

Which will be more criminal?

Can I like the rockies now?

zenbitz — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 23:39:42 -0000

Just a little. Since they swept a 4-bagger from the Dodgers...

Can I like them more than the diamondbacks?

Lowry's Nibbling

zenbitz — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 19:31:04 -0000

So this is a fork from "Walks and the Giants" diary:

Noah Lowry
2004-2006 465 IP 222 RA = 4.30 RA/9
H/9 8.88
BB/9 3.10
K/9 6.35
HR/9 1.00

(this is so close to a BP average pitcher it's almost scary)

2007
H/9 8.94
BB/9 5.02
K/9 5.02
HR/9 0.69

RA: 156 IP, 76 R: 4.38

So, if he has purposfully traded HRs for BBs, then it hasn't really done him much good.

Note: By blruging 2004-06, I don't account for the fact that the league ERA is 2004 was 4.14 as compared to a more typical 4.4-4.5. So that means his 2007 adjusted RA is a little better.